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Drugs cheat Tsikhan carries European Games Flame

Rio 2016 hammer silver medallist Ivan Tsikhan ran with the 2019 European Games Torch as it reached Grodno at the end of the second week of its journey to Minsk.

Belarus's Tsikhan, a double world champion, was included in the Relay despite having been found guilty of doping offences after retrospective testing meant he was stripped of his 2004 Olympic silver and 2005 World Championship gold.

Meanwhile, Olympic basketball gold medallist Ivan Edeshko recreated a famous sporting moment from 47 years ago when the Flame of Peace arrived in his home town.

In 1972, the USSR faced the United States in the Olympic basketball final and Edeshko launched a defence-splitting pass to Aleksandr Belov, who scored the winning basket for the Soviet Union in a memorable finale.

The dramatic climax to the match was replayed on big screens in Grodno as Edeshko, now 74, threw the ball to a young player to complete the move.

The original moment in 1972 was one of the most talked about in Olympic history.

The US had moved one point ahead and the final buzzer apparently sounded, but the USSR claimed they had called a time out at three seconds.

About the author

Philip Barker, a freelance journalist, has been on the editorial team of the Journal of Olympic History and is credited with having transformed the publication into one of the most respected historical publications on the history of the Olympic Games. He is also an expert on Olympic Music, a field which is not generally well known.

inside the photos

Fact of the day

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Iranian judoka Arash Miresmaeili was disqualified for weighing in at nearly four pounds above the limit for his weight class of his under-66 kilograms match against an Israeli opponent Ehud Vaks in the first round. It was claimed Miresmaeili had gone on an eating binge to protest the International Olympic Committee's recognition of the state of Israel. Iran does not recognise the state of Israel, and Miresmaeili's actions won praise from high-ranking Iranian officials. Mohammad Khatami, the country's President at the time, was quoted as saying Miresmaili's actions would be "recorded in the history of Iranian glories". He was later awarded $125,000 by the Government - the same amount given to Olympic gold medallists.

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